April 9, 2009 Session Report

With some religious holidays causing some of our regular attendees to miss this week's session, it looked like we were headed for a down week attendance-wise, but I was pleasantly surprised to welcome back Sarah (whom we hadn't seen for several months) and also we had a first-time attendee, Ray, who lives in nearby Odenton whom we hope to see back again in future weeks. Rounding out this week's group were Doug, Gabe, Greg, Clayton and myself for a total attendance of seven.

Games played this week included: Roll Through the Ages, Can't Stop, Bananagrams (x2), Legend of the Flying Dutchman, Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride (US Map), Wits and Wagers. Some details follow.

Roll Through the Ages: Gabe, Greg and Clayton played this one, first time for Greg, who wound up winning. Scores were fairly close, something like 18-13-12. Sounds like a well-played game by everyone.

Can't Stop: It was Doug, myself and Sarah for this one. Doug got the jump on us and won fairly easily as Sarah and I were playing catch up most of the way, and we just couldn't catch Doug.

Bananagrams: Sarah had brought this game in her compactly stored package of games and Doug and I joined her while waiting for the Roll Through the Ages game to wrap up. It was one of those timed word games, and I had a difficult time of it. When we picked up it, I conceded as Doug and Sarah were far ahead. Later, the two of them locked horns again and Doug prevailed by a narrow margin (something like two letters that Sarah had yet to place). Not the kind of game you want to take on Doug, who is a crossword puzzle expert, IMHO.

By this time Ray had joined us while Doug was teaching an interesting looking game called Legend of the Flying Dutchman (hope I got the name right). It was a game about moving the black (pirate) ship and trying to invest in one of the colors of ships that would be worth the most when the pirate ship hit the island or at the end of the game. You have a limited number of options (three times you can invest, three times you can take more bidding chits, or you can bid for the right to influence or decide where the black pirate ship goes). It came down to a tension-filled final turn where I moved the Dutchman to my advantage, hurting Gabe who was probably in a position to win. As it turned out, however, the winner was Doug who (like me) had two shares in the best color. Final scores were Doug 75 John 72 Greg 56 Sarah and Ray (who played as a team) 51 Clayton 38 Gabe 17. Interesting older game with some unique concepts.

For the next games, we again split up into two groups. Ray, Sarah, Doug and Clayton played Ticket to Ride on the standard US map. Sarah wound up winning with 118 while Ray was second with 96. Strong performance by Ray, who I believe may have been playing TTR for the first time. The rest of the group (Gabe, Greg and I) locked horns in a three-player Puerto Rico game. Greg surged to an early lead in shipping but stalled out a bit when his income generation wasn't as strong as the rest of us. Gabe got an early Hacienda, took Settler alot and wound up with three quarries, building three large buildings plus a factory and a harbor to secure the win by a hefty 10-point margin, 51 to 41 for me and 39 for Greg.

For the final game of the evening, all seven of us took part in Wits and Wagers (2d edition). I started off well, knowing stuff like the approximate dates of Frank Robinson's becoming the first black manager in MLB and the approximate length of FDR's Presidency, but Greg wound up the big winner after showing superior knowledge on a question about the number of movie theatres in the US. Didn't get everyone's scores, but for awhile we actually broke the bank and had to record the numbers on paper. Greg wound up with over 100, none of the rest of us had more than 30 or so.

Hope to see everyone back for next week's session, including some of you who missed this week or in recent weeks. As I have mentioned to several of you, I am working on a special Saturday session in May and will report on details as soon as they have been arranged, hopefully in the next week or so.